“Nothing like free education” - Blade

Addressing student representatives from 26 universities at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Nzimande remarked that government’s policy makes no allocation for providing free studies.

“You can't have free higher education for everyone in a capitalist society. That would be saying that as I, as a minister, government must pay for my child. There is really nothing like free education,” News24 quoted him saying.

Nzimande has continued to remain under fire following October’s student protest against the department’s proposed six percent tariff hikes for 2016, which was eventually dropped following a meeting with Vice-Chancellors and President Jacob Zuma.

Earlier this week, the Democratic Alliance (DA) called for the minister to explain weekend media allegations that a shareholding company with links to the South African Communist Party’s investment firm, had been benefitting from department tenders worth R235-million, since his appointment in 2009.